The present invention relates to the field of packaging and dispensing of liquids, in particular comestible liquids, in small flexible receptacles, these receptacles being provided for this purpose with valves, closures such as corks or any other accessory for dispensing and withdrawing, and has for its object a machine for filling bags or the like comprising a control device with cams.
At present, the packaging and dispensing of certain comestible beverages, particularly table wines, fruit juices or pasteurized milk, takes place by means of flexible receptacles, such as bags of synthetic material, commonly called bag in box, generally provided with valves or outlet opening of these receptacles.
These bags are made from multi-layer films generally comprising a barrier layer arranged between sealing and internal and external protective layers, then packaged under vacuum in cardboard boxes for assembly and dispatched toward their filling destination. This manner of procedure permits rapid production of bags, as well as good quality control.
Recent commercial developments tend to limit the number of intermediate steps between the production of the liquid and its sale, for the purpose of reducing costs connected with handling, transport or bulky empty containers and storage. To this end, it has been proposed to carry out simultaneously the production and filling of bags at a single production site, the filled bags being then sent to the sales and/or consumption outlets. Such an arrangement of packaging and distribution requires the use of specific installations, in which the production and filling of the bags are carried out simultaneously.
These known installations therefore permit satisfying the new requirements as to packaging material of liquid products. However, in these known installations, the filling machine is subjected to very great stresses which are prejudicial to reliable high speed operation.
Thus, the filling machines of these installations are generally multiple filling station machines individual to the bags, of which each station comprises an assembly of means permitting securing and holding the bag, manipulation of the closure to permit filling of said bag, then the filling of the latter, closing of the bag and its evacuation for packaging. The different operations carried out by these filling machines are all controlled and monitored by means of a control device with pneumatic jacks and monitoring with position and/or electrical or opto-electrical position and/or end of course detectors.
As a results the control and monitoring device is particularly complicated and its installation and maintenance are relatively costly. Thus, because these machines carry out a large number of unit operations per hour, the jacks with which they are provided are subjected to a very stressful mode of operation, such that their replacement after wear must be envisaged with relatively short delays, which gives rise on the one hand to corresponding stoppages of the machines and on the other hand increasing production costs.
Moreover, the operation of the present machines gives rise to a large consumption of energy, in particular because of the transformation of electrical energy necessary for the production of pneumatic energy, which is not recyclable, as well as for overcoming the effect of friction and inertia of the masses of the machine during the successive negative and positive acceleration phases.
It should also be noted that these machines must have a synchronous type operation, which gives rise necessarily to relatively long cycle times and hence a relatively low output.
The present invention has for its object to overcome the drawbacks of the bag filling machines known at present, by providing a filling machine of this type comprising a device with cam control permitting a simplification of the construction, better reliability of operation and simplified maintenance giving rise to lower cost of production of the machine and production of filled bags.
To this end, the machine for filling bags or the like, in particular with comestible liquids, which is essentially constituted by a transfer station rotatable about a central vertical axis mounted on a plate secured with the frame of the machine, with multiple filling stations each comprising a means for gripping and holding the base of a disassembleable closure for a bag and a means for manipulating the upper part of said closure, and by a filling device coacting with the opening of said open closure following disassembly of the upper portion of this latter and supplied with liquid by a pump connected to a reservoir or the like, the assembly of these elements being controlled by a control device, is characterized in that the control device is a device with cams mounted fixedly on the machine.